Rebound
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: As he is kissing Martha, Humphrey briefly reflects on his past romances. (Slight Camille bashing - you have been warned, but overall he is nice towards her).


There might be a bit of anger towards Camille here, but don't worry. It's just momentary.

While I like Camille, I could not see her with Humphrey since there were moments where I felt she was nasty to him.

I don't own Death in Paradise.

* * *

Rebound.

He had kissed three major women in his life; Sally, Camille, and now Martha.

Things with Sally had collapsed, and like he had told Camille things between him and his ex-wife had fizzled out and had been on the cards for a long time. That attempt by Sally to try to get back into his life when she had gone to the trouble of coming to Saint Marie, though it had quickly fallen apart because she wasn't there to help their marriage which was practically in tatters anyway and was only trying to help herself.

By that time, Humphrey had started to fall in love with Camille.

Bad idea.

Camille was a nice woman, no doubt about that, but now he was here in London after not visiting his home country for the last few years kissing Martha who seemed to compliment his own personality more than Sally or Camille had ever done, he had to admit it would never have happened.

He had only developed a crush on Camille after his arrival on Saint Marie because she had been the only young woman around him, and he was still devastated by the upcoming divorce between him and Sally.

He had seen Camille as a potential replacement, but he had forgotten or had chosen to forget Camille had had a thing for his predecessor, Richard Poole.

Humphrey had never met the other detective who had tragically met his end because he had identified a woman masquerading as one of his old friends from university so thoroughly she had fooled everyone, but he had known Camille had been more affected by his loss than she had let on. But he had disregarded that pain because he had deemed it unimportant.

And that had been when it had gone totally wrong.

He had tried to find ways to woo her (he tried hard to forget how he had accidentally pushed her into the sea after following Dwayne's dubious advice; it had been an embarrassing fiasco), but nothing had worked. Looking back now Humphrey could now say with complete honesty he was glad that it hadn't worked.

Looking back Humphrey could tell he and Camille had simply never meant to be together, as tragic as that sounded. He remembered all of those little put-downs, the critical way she had looked at him which mirrored both his mother and occasionally Sally, who had impressed his parents more than they had been impressed with him (he still had no idea what had possessed his father to come to that courthouse when he had worked out Errol had been the killer during that case, but it had led to a nicer relationship with the pair of them because his father had come across several cases in his own career which didn't make much sense; it wasn't exactly father and son quality time, but it was good enough in Humphrey's book because he had always wanted to have a good relationship with his parents, but because of the size of his family it hadn't been possible, but he had always wanted to have children who had a good relationship with their grandparents).

One of the worst times Camille had hurt him was when he had tried to fit in with the people of Saint Marie by going to that cabaret. Okay, it had been a spur of the moment thing, but the fact she hadn't told him it was a joke was hurtful. But there was something else, something he had ignored since he had placed Camille on a pedestal.

If she hadn't told Fidel or Dwayne about his plan to visit the Cabaret and learn from the experience then she would have had no intention of telling him. She had meant it as a joke, something Fidel had laughed at in disbelief and made Dwayne look at him in dismay. When that thought had popped into his mind, Humphrey had come dangerously close to losing his temper with her. With all three of them. He may have played the part of a clumsy, eccentric police officer, but he was neither afraid to discipline his colleagues nor was he afraid of making sure everyone understood there were limits to what he would take.

In the end, he hadn't lost his temper, but it had been close. He was still reeling from the misery caused by the divorce with Sally, how she had virtually torn him apart. At that point, he had discovered he was attracted to Camille, but he had made a mistake. While he and Camille had worked well together, he had made the mistake of thinking that something more could come from their relationship while he ignored the occasional exasperated glances she had thrown at him. But now he was kissing Martha he realised he had latched onto Camille.

And then Sally had come back into his life.

During the course of the year, Camille had helped him deal with the divorce - when the letter came that said it was done, she had just been pushed to the back of his mind.

And then she had suddenly appeared on the island, right in the middle of a complex case that was frustrating to begin with, but when Sally arrived she had dominated every thought he had to the point where he accidentally said her name every few seconds whenever he spoke to someone female.

When she had referred to their marriage as a soggy fat huge predictable blob, he had not known what to think. Those words were levelled at him, they both knew it and they hurt, they really did. She had shown no interest in his work, no chance there then, then amused and patronising when he had found he had forgotten the notes he was going to speak from, but she was manipulating him the whole time.

When he had refused, she had walked off.

Just like that.

She had left him a message on an answerphone shortly after he had arrived on Saint Marie, then she had divorced him, then had the nerve to travel to the island, and then she had come up with a plan to get back with him, fully convinced he would go for it. But he had seen through her. At the time he had thought he was in love with Camille, and in a way, he was since she was the type of person he felt he could love.

But it was never meant to be because a year later Camille left Saint Marie for a job in Paris. He had tried to stop it with the Commissioner claiming that Camille was too valuable a police officer, but in the end, he realised he had made a mistake and he had signed it away. When Camille left he had kissed her, but there was no love. It hurt but as time passed and he began working with Florence instead which formed a close bond between the two of them, he realised what he had called love was nothing of the sort.

Camille was just a rebound attraction. He had fallen in 'love' with her because he had seen her as a substitute for Sally, and he hadn't realised it because of how upset he'd been with the breakdown of his marriage.

And now… Martha.

He had failed to tell her how he felt about her, but now he had this funny, always smiling, wonderful woman in his arms, kissing, Humphrey realised he was finally with the woman he loved and he had no intention of losing her.

Unfortunately, that would mean saying goodbye to Saint Marie. He had come to love the island - he would miss his team; Dwayne, Fidel who'd gone when he'd been promoted, Florence, Catherine, and all the people whom he had befriended during his time on the island.

But he had the perfect replacement in mind.

It was all worth it for the woman whom he loved, and now finally his parents could see him for who he was.

* * *

What do you think?


End file.
